THE Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court of India headed by Chief Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud has upheld the August 5, 2019 action of the Parliament and subsequent Presidential order in regard to the revocation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which allowed the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir a unique position within the Union of India.
The ruling BJP is celebrating the Supreme Court verdict pronounced on December 11, 2023. However, the regional political forces of Jammu and Kashmir have expressed their disappointment over the verdict. The legality of the revocation of Article 370 by the Parliament was questioned by the regional political forces in the Supreme Court. The court heard the argument of the petitioners for close to a month in September. The legal luminaries, on behalf of the petitioners, argued vehemently. However, they could not convince the court. The argument focussed around the “illegitimate action” alleging that due procedure was not followed. However, the court was not convinced by the argument and very explicitly ruled that Article 370 was a temporary provision and the Parliament was the only legitimate forum to revoke this provision from the Constitution and bring Jammu and Kashmir under uniform constitutional framework of the Union of India.
The Supreme Court verdict has finally removed the uncertainty looming over the legality and constitutionality of the Presidential order of August 6, 2019. The fact of the matter is that Article 370 was greatly eroded in practice since its incorporation in 1954. All those political forces who had fashioned their political bible around this provision, greatly contributed to its erosion from time to time. It was National Conference, Congress and of late, People’s Democratic Party of Mufti Muhammad Sayeed who eroded this special provision for decades and it was now just a numerical figure in the statue book. But hurrah, they would harvest on politics over 370 for seven decades. They would swear by its sanctity outside the Assembly. As and when in power, the same forces would recommend massive erosions to the Article 370 with ease and very smoothly.
It was an irony that violators would pretend as defenders. The height of hypocrisy could be assessed from the fact that late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, before and after forming PDP, facilitated many erosions to the Article 370 and still, he would say, “Article 370 was the article of faith” for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The National Conference, which is undoubtedly and undeniably the mother of all evils, did the worst thing any political party would have done to its people. Its leadership, when in power, was never serious in strengthening this temporary provision; rather it went all out against it inside the state legislature and the Parliament. But reaped the benefits of the same Article for decades. The power-hungry National Conference sacrificed everything for power and ironically took the ownership of the so called “honour and dignity” of the people of Kashmir enshrined in Article 370.
Good that the Supreme Court has finally closed the chapter. It is hoped the nuisance of regional political forces of Kashmir too finds a closure. And people are allowed to think and ponder.
